It’s becoming more and more likely that if Arsenal want to bolster their squad in order to challenge for the Premier League title for a third consecutive season, they’ll need to first cast off some players. One player they won’t want to lose, though, is young striker Chidozie Obi-Martin.
To give themselves the wiggle room around the Premier League’s financial regulations, the Gunners will want to be active on both sides of the transfer market and after failing to secure any silverware last season, manager Mikel Arteta will certainly be prepared to begin the culling in order to take the fight to Manchester City when the season begins in August.
Stars that spent the majority of last season out on loan are the likeliest to be at the top of the to-go list, with Kieran Tierney, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Nuno Tavares just a few of the names. First-team pieces that could be sold to drum up funds for their war chest include midfielder Thomas Partey, wingers Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson as well as goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale after reports suggest Arsenal will try to bring in replacement David Raya on a permanent deal.
Defenders Oleksandr Zinchenko and Jakub Kiwior have also seen interest in them from teams across Europe on top of forwards Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah who could both see departures if the Gunners are serious about upgrading their firepower going forward by signing another attacker.
However, it’s not just the senior squad they could look to in order to gather up funds for the summer, with their youth academy certainly not out of the firing line either. With some of the countries’ best prospects, it’s no wonder there are clubs across the continent interested in investing in their potential.
One of those young stars is 16-year-old Obi-Martin, whose incredible record of 32 goals in just 18 matches in the Premier League 2 last season helped cement him as one of the most promising talents in England. Unfortunately for the Gunners, it has meant keeping him under wraps has been almost impossible.
And now according to journalist Christian Falk, the Gunners youngster could be at risk of being snatched up by interested German parties who now hold a huge advantage over Arsenal in the negotiations process, due to being able to offer him a professional contract, something he can’t do in England due to his young age.
He wrote: “It’s true that Bayern Munich are interested in Arsenal youngster Chidozie Obi-Martin. He’s very attractive for Bayern. He’s scoring plenty of goals.
“Bayern have the advantage as the situation is a bit different in Germany compared to England – he can already sign a professional contract at 16 years of age. Bayern would only have to pay €400,000. So he’s really cheap!
“But Bayern aren’t the only club interested; there’s also Dortmund who are going for him. So it’s getting really interesting, but I heard that Bayern have a good chance of signing Obi-Martin.”
